I'm Addicted to GPS Stash Hunting (or Geocaching)

Last Updated: 2003-01-20 12:44:55

My trusty G.P.S. receiver points the way to the cache.

I got hooked like this. You see, I'm an electronic gadget freak who drools over catalog photos of the latest sleek black or silver consumer electronics products, things like progressive scan DVD players, high definition flat screen plasma televisions, or the latest PC 3D video accelerator card. I also enjoy hiking and the outdoors. But for some nefarious subconscious reason, I rarely seem to find a compelling reason to venture into the great outdoors. That is, until I found something that bridges these two great loves of mine.

Enter the GPS receiver. You've probably heard of the Global Positioning System ("GPS"), a system of 24 low-orbit Navstar satellites, each about the size of a large automobile, weighing just under two tons. On board each satellite is an extremely accurate atomic clock. The satellites broadcast radio signals which a GPS receiver can then use to calculate exactly where it is located on the surface of the earth. A simple GPS receiver can tell you where you're at in degrees and minutes latitude (how far north and south) and longitude (east and west), as well as your altitude (how high above or below sea level you are).

Even if you know your latitude and longitude, you still need a good map to know exactly where you're at. Many GPS receivers include built-in electronic maps or permit you to upload electronic maps on your computer to the GPS. Most recreational GPS receivers can also record a map of where you've been, or let you navigate a set of waypoints you progam in (using your computer or using just the GPS receiver itself). There are web sites that share waypoints for hiking trails, biking trails, ATV trails, or other points of interest.

The Global Positioning System was originally put in place by the U.S. Department of Defense. It was designed for and is operated by the military. The GPS satellites broadcast an encrypted signal for authorized military and governmental agencies to use called the Precise Positioning Service ("PPS"). But since it's encrypted, civilian GPS receivers can't use it. They must instead rely on an unencrypted signal the GPS satellites broadcast, called the Standard Positioning Service ("SPS"). The Dept. of Defense can intentionally degrade this civilian signal. This degradation, called Selective Availability ("SA") reduces the accuracy of civilian GPS receivers to 100 meters instead of 30 meters.

On May 1st, 2000, the Selective Availability degradation from the SPS signal was removed by the Clinton Administration. Just two days after the increase in civilian GPS receiver accuracy, on May 3rd, Dave Ulmer hid a five-gallon bucket with a notebook, pencil, camera, and some trinkets just outside of Portland, Oregon. He then posted the GPS coordinates, the latitude and longitude, on the Internet and challenged other GPS users to find it. Two days later, the cache of goodies had already been visited twice, and someone had written in the log book. The first person to find the cache, Mike Teague, created a web site to document the container and its location, and the other stashes that quickly sprang up. By July of 2000, another interested party, Jeremy Irish, teamed up with Mike to create a new web site design that allowed interest GPS users to more easily find nearby GPS stashes or geocaches. They called the new sport of GPS stash hunting "Geocaching."

Since the summer of 2000, the sport of Geocaching has grown to include caches in every state and in over 100 countries. Jeremy Irish continues to maintain an excellent web site that lists (including maps and other information) these caches.

I first heard of Geocaching on a technology related television show early in 2001. It sounded interesting, but I didn't think about it again, almost until summer. In June of 2001, enthralled with the idea of taking a GPS receiver with me on hikes to chart my course, I took the plunge and bought a GPS receiver, a Garmin eTrex Vista.

Internet junkie that I am, I scoured the Internet for the best price, found the best deal ($50 cheaper than any other store or online web site), and placed my order. I also ordered a set of CD-ROMS that included the complete USGS topographical maps of the state of Utah for my computer. The software that came with the CD-ROMS to display the maps included GPS receiver integration so I could send and receive data from my GPS. That let me go hiking, biking, or walking with my GPS, come home, and display my exact course on my computer's screen. It also permitted me to select a point of interest on the map, create a route how to get there, and upload the point and route to my GPS so I could then follow it.

My eTrex GPS receiver arrived on July 9th. I was excited to try it out. Then I remembered hearing about Geocaching. It wasn't long before I found the main Geocaching web site and typed in my ZIP code. There, before me, was a list of local caches I could find. I was surprised there were so many right here in Southwestern Utah, probably 30-50 in the 100-mile radius around St. George.

The very next day I drove to Hurricane, showed my new toy to my father, and invited him to help me hunt for a nearby GPS stash. Before we left, we read the web page describing the cache location and printed out a topographical map of the cache area, drawing a red "X" where I estimated the cache was located. Because I was a new user of the topographical mapping software I'd bought with my GPS, I didn't know that I could have printed out the same topographical map with the exact cache position displayed on it.

Interesting rock formations encountered on Sand Mountain while cache hunting on New Years Day, 2003

Off we drove, through La Verkin, then east toward Virgin. Just before reaching Virgin, we turned north on a road that winds its way up the side of Hurricane Mesa. Once atop Hurricane Mesa, we proceeded toward the base of Smith Mesa, leaving the main dirt road. We were nearly there!

At the foot of Smith Mesa, near its southernmost point, between two arms of the hillside, is an almost alien landscape of purple clay and large boulders, sprinkled with small bits of petrified wood. Here, among the boulders, a container of some sort was hidden. We parked and got out.

Suddenly it hit me! I didn't know the GPS coordinates of the cache! I couldn't use my GPS to guide us! I'd been in such a hurry that I forgot to write the coordinates down. We'd just been following the map so far.

All was not lost. Thanks to the big red "X" on my map and our memories of the cache location, we figured we could pin down the cache location to within 100 yards or so.

We clambered up the hillside among the huge boulders and began peeking in every nook and cranny, looking for any sort of container. Luck was with us! While standing atop one rock, I noticed some vegetation that looked a little worn, as if there'd been foot traffic in this spot before us. While trying to trace the trail with my eyes, the corner of a green metal box caught my eye, hidden in a crack behind and a bit underneath a rock.

We'd found the Geocache -- without using my new GPS. It was exhilarating! We opened the box and explored the contents -- a few trinkets.

Geocaching has a small number of common sense rules:

If you take something from a cache, leave something interesting for the next visitor to find. Don't put anything in a cache that would spoil -- like food -- or that is dangerous or illegal. It's no fun to find a cache that's full of junk or trash other lazy visitors left behind.
Write about your visit in the log book. And don't forget, when you are next online, to write about your visit on the web site so other web users can share your adventure.
When you're finished, hide the cache where you found it. Don't move it unless it is a roving or mobile cache designed to be hidden in a new location.
When seeking or hunting a cache, be considerate of the land around you. Don't litter, and don't be a vandal. Remember the geocacher's motto: "Cache in, trash out."

We each wrote an entry in the notebook, then decided to take a compass from the cache and leave a Hot Wheels toy behind. There was another Hot Wheels toy already in the cache. If we'd read the other visitors' online web log entries before coming, we might have known this and brought something else to exchange instead.

That first cache hunt was so much fun, I was instantly hooked. The very same day I went hunting another cache, this time with my roommate, in Silver Reef. Still inexperienced with my GPS (at least I had the cache coordinates with me), it took me a while to hunt down the cache location within the range of error of my GPS unit. Little did I realize that I could have entered the coordinates into my GPS and it would have pointed directly to the cache and told me exactly how far I had to go, whether miles or feet. I was doing it the hard way, reading the latitude and longitude on the GPS display and comparing it to the cache latitude and longitude I had printed out. This cache too, we found. I took a green Hot Wheels car (Hot Wheels apparently were popular caching items), and left a shark pen and some one-dollar bills.

Since that first summer of Geocaching, I've had numerous adventures, from easy caches you could drive right to, to caches you had to hike several miles to, from caches in large plastic buckets, to virtual caches where there is no cache container at all--instead you just have to provide some evidence you were at the cache coordinates. I've seen more beautiful sights and interesting places than I would have imagined possible. The other cache hunters I've met have all been friendly and interesting. It's the perfect marriage of technology and the great outdoors.

The cache on Sand Mountain, nestled in a sandstone nook - New Years Day, 2003

Nowadays, the Southwestern Utah area is peppered with caches. From the modest fifty or so listed when I began hunting caches, there are now hundreds. I've placed a few of my own as well, and been delighted to read the logs of those who have found my caches, people from all across the U.S. One of the local caches may take you to a mountain top with a panoramic vista, or to a historical site; to a hidden canyons you have never heard of, or even to a parking lot in the middle of town.

Geocaching has expanded to include other related games and activities. There are event caches where fellow cache hunters meet. There are travel bugs, items with an attached metal tag that has a unique number etched on it, that travel from cache to cache. The unique number lets finders track where the travel bug has been and log where they decide to place the bug. There are a myriad of geocaching games. One Utah stash hunter who goes by the handle Cach-U-Nuts, has made quite a splash with some unique geocaching games. There are multi-caches where one must find the first cache in order to learn the coordinates of the next cache, and so on until you arrive at the final destination.

It's a blast! It's fun. Because of geocaching, I've seen more of the outdoors and done more hiking than ever before. If you own a GPS receiver, or if you know someone else who does, try it out! Whether you're a techno geek or not, you'll love it!

-Astounding
St. George, Utah

For more information, visit the main Geocaching web site at: